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After many delays, computer peripheral manufacturer Belkin finally put its long-promised Thunderbolt docking station up for sale on its online store for $299. The peripheral was originally announced way back in 2011, and a near-final version was showed off at this year's CES, but this is the first time the peripheral has been offered for sale.

The dock offers a gigabit Ethernet jack, three USB 3.0 ports (each capped at 2.5Gbps, about half of the theoretical maximum), a FireWire 800 port, audio-in and audio-out jacks, and two Thunderbolt ports. One of those ports is used to connect the dock to your computer, and the other can be connected to a display or another Thunderbolt peripheral; up to five additional devices can be daisy-chained to it at a time.

When Apple debuted Intel's Thunderbolt connector in its 2011 Mac lineup, the interface seemed promising—here was a high-bandwidth connector that could potentially bring desktop-esque expandability to slim laptops and tablets. The reality has been a bit less rosy: low adoption in PCs, issues with licensing and cost, and ever-widening adoption of the usually-fast-enough USB 3.0 standard have put a crimp in Thunderbolt's style. Most products that use the interface have, to date, been either expensive professional storage products or Apple's own Thunderbolt display. Matrox also has a Thunderbolt dock with fewer ports available for $249, but promises of more exotic things like docks for high-powered graphics cards have largely failed to materialize.

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Andrew Cunningham
Andrew wrote and edited tech news and reviews at Ars Technica from 2012 to 2017, where he still occasionally freelances; he is currently a lead editor at Wirecutter. He also records a weekly book podcast called Overdue. Twitter@AndrewWrites

96 Reader Comments

Just having a look at the specs, I could see it as a good 'upgrade' for those with 2011 iMac's that want USB3 capabilities. Big question (not too sure whether it has been answered in the article) does it require third party drivers? Having had a mixed experience relying on third party hardware vendors who tend to outsource their driver writing I wonder whether the experience is going to be as smooth as a native one provided by Apple.

I've been waiting for a simple and affordable home docking solution to add USB 3.0 to my MBP. But the omission of HDMI means this one is crossed off the list. So right now my TB docking options sit at ____________, _____________, and _____________. While those are quality options, I wouldn't mind adding one more to the list for comparison sake before buying.

...why? Honest question. Is this a massively over-priced gimmick, or does something about it actually justify the price?

I think mostly because Belkin probably doesn't expect to sell many of them, it's probably low volume/high cost, with a lot of development behind it and the cost is higher than the usual cheap-as-dirt chips in it (USB controllers are cheap, Thunderbolt is likely rather expensive, again likely due to volume).

So, it's kind of justified, but not really. If Thunderbolt was well adopted you could bet this would be cheap.

I've been waiting for a simple and affordable home docking solution to add USB 3.0 to my MBP. But the omission of HDMI means this one is crossed off the list. So right now my TB docking options sit at ____________, _____________, and _____________. While those are quality options, I wouldn't mind adding one more to the list for comparison sake before buying.

The second thunderbolt port can be used for a display. You may be able to hook up your TV with a Display Port to HDMI cable.

I've been waiting for a simple and affordable home docking solution to add USB 3.0 to my MBP. But the omission of HDMI means this one is crossed off the list. So right now my TB docking options sit at ____________, _____________, and _____________. While those are quality options, I wouldn't mind adding one more to the list for comparison sake before buying.

...why? Honest question. Is this a massively over-priced gimmick, or does something about it actually justify the price?

Well, the ports it adds are (as I understand it) essentially full, extra additions. So if you had a theoretical laptop with **only** a thunderbolt port, you're getting what amounts to a PCIe Gigabit ethernet card + port, a PCIe USB 3.0 card + 3 ports and so on.

In practice, however, few people have laptops so limited, so I'm not sure who the target audience is for this.

I've been waiting for a simple and affordable home docking solution to add USB 3.0 to my MBP. But the omission of HDMI means this one is crossed off the list. So right now my TB docking options sit at ____________, _____________, and _____________. While those are quality options, I wouldn't mind adding one more to the list for comparison sake before buying.

The second thunderbolt port can be used for a display. You may be able to hook up your TV with a Display Port to HDMI cable.

I think the desire was to have a second HDMI connection so that you could attache a display via mDP/TB and another via HDMI. Right now, unless you shell out $999 for a Thunderbolt Display, you can't do more than two screens and one of those has to be the built in display. I was really hoping that I could eventually drive to 24" monitors from my 2011 MBP but it's not going to happen without an upgrade at some point in the future.

I'm going to chime in as apparently one of the only commenters who thinks this is awesome and hopes to see more widespread adoption of thunderbolt.

I would very much love to remain portable with my macbook pro and also dock into everything plugged into my workstations both at home and at work with a single plug. This functionality is easily worth the $300 (although sub $200 would be a sweeter price point), especially since the only other way I can do this with a macbook is by buying a $1000 cinema display.

Also, to the person who says lack of HDMI is a deal-breaker, thunderbolt includes a mini displayport channel so all you'd need is an adapter cable for HDMI out since the connectors are the same. Something like:

...why? Honest question. Is this a massively over-priced gimmick, or does something about it actually justify the price?

Well, the ports it adds are (as I understand it) essentially full, extra additions. So if you had a theoretical laptop with **only** a thunderbolt port, you're getting what amounts to a PCIe Gigabit ethernet card + port, a PCIe USB 3.0 card + 3 ports and so on.

In practice, however, few people have laptops so limited, so I'm not sure who the target audience is for this.

Exactly. Thunderbolt is basically display port for the video and PCI Express for everything else. That means that the Ethernet, Firewire and usb are provided by what is essentially additional PCI-E cards built into the dock. Not sure if audio can be handled by the display port if that equates to another card.

I've been waiting for a simple and affordable home docking solution to add USB 3.0 to my MBP. But the omission of HDMI means this one is crossed off the list. So right now my TB docking options sit at ____________, _____________, and _____________. While those are quality options, I wouldn't mind adding one more to the list for comparison sake before buying.

This Belkin, $300, which supports daisy chaining of Thunderbolt (and thus DisplayPort or DVI or HDMI via an adapter)The Matrox, $250, which doesn't support daisy chaining of any other Thunderbolt devices (but does have either DVI or HDMI)

I've been waiting for a simple and affordable home docking solution to add USB 3.0 to my MBP. But the omission of HDMI means this one is crossed off the list. So right now my TB docking options sit at ____________, _____________, and _____________. While those are quality options, I wouldn't mind adding one more to the list for comparison sake before buying.

The second thunderbolt port can be used for a display. You may be able to hook up your TV with a Display Port to HDMI cable.

I think the desire was to have a second HDMI connection so that you could attache a display via mDP/TB and another via HDMI. Right now, unless you shell out $999 for a Thunderbolt Display, you can't do more than two screens and one of those has to be the built in display. I was really hoping that I could eventually drive to 24" monitors from my 2011 MBP but it's not going to happen without an upgrade at some point in the future.

I would be willing to pay $300 for a thunderbolt dock with a fully powered PCI-e x16 slot capable of running an enthusiast level graphics card. That's the holy grail. That's worth $300. I'd buy one right now.

I would be willing to pay $300 for a thunderbolt dock with a fully powered PCI-e x16 slot capable of running an enthusiast level graphics card. That's the holy grail. That's worth $300. I'd buy one right now.

Thunderbolt as currently specced can't push 2.0 x16, so this comment is...well, it's something. More of that something given that no "enthusiast-level" graphics cards show a significant delta between 2.0 x16 and 2.0 x8.

A lot of enterprise laptop docks already cost about that much. Pretty sure I paid $200 for my crappy USB3 dock that has one of those awful USB2 "video adapters" on it.

Of course the dock in this came also came with a laptop stand, but still, damned expensive.

$300 is about on the edge of what I'd pay for this, I'd have to know exactly how the monitor support works, especially for a PC laptops that may have Thunderbolt (as rare as those may be). I'd love to plug in a couple of 27" 2560x1440 monitors, but I'm sure the devil will be in the details.

I've been waiting for a simple and affordable home docking solution to add USB 3.0 to my MBP. But the omission of HDMI means this one is crossed off the list. So right now my TB docking options sit at ____________, _____________, and _____________. While those are quality options, I wouldn't mind adding one more to the list for comparison sake before buying.

The second thunderbolt port can be used for a display. You may be able to hook up your TV with a Display Port to HDMI cable.

I've already done that: you've described my current makeshift setup. My hope with the dock would be to run all my peripheral devices through a single docking unit. This would reduce unnecessary clutter on my desk, and frankly add a little sanity to my evenings (going from work to school).

So yes, you've described a workable alternative. But for the amount Belkin is charging, it seems absurd I would need to have more than one (non power) cable plugged into my laptop while at my desk.

I've been waiting for a simple and affordable home docking solution to add USB 3.0 to my MBP. But the omission of HDMI means this one is crossed off the list. So right now my TB docking options sit at ____________, _____________, and _____________. While those are quality options, I wouldn't mind adding one more to the list for comparison sake before buying.

The second thunderbolt port can be used for a display. You may be able to hook up your TV with a Display Port to HDMI cable.

I've already done that: you've described my current makeshift setup. My hope with the dock would be to run all my peripheral devices through a single docking unit. This would reduce unnecessary clutter on my desk, and frankly add a little sanity to my evenings (going from work to school).

So yes, you've described a workable alternative. But for the amount Belkin is charging, it seems absurd I would need to have more than one (non power) cable plugged into my laptop while at my desk.

He meant you could plug a DisplayPort to HDMI cable into the second Thunderbolt port on the dock. You can plug one monitor into the dock no problem. Two monitors + a dock may not be possible on one cable since Thunderbolt has two channels, and one would be occupied by the dock.

Thunderbolt as currently specced can't push 2.0 x16, so this comment is...well, it's something. More of that something given that no "enthusiast-level" graphics cards show a significant delta between 2.0 x16 and 2.0 x8.

Yes, I am fully aware of that. It would still be an amazing improvement over integrated graphics, even with the bandwidth restrictions. Even Expresscard external graphics solutions are incredible upgrades.

The next version of thunderbolt doubles bandwidth too, so that would work even better.

The people wondering who would buy these are forgetting about Enterprise users. We've got thousands of Lenovos and hundreds of Macs, and the Mac users have been clamoring for a proper dock like the Lenovos have forever, something you can drop your laptop into/on and have it power your entire workstation with multiple screens and peripherals.

We tested the Matrox but it's just too feature limited for the price. This is still expensive but adds enough functionality to make it possibly worth it. Companies won't balk at the cost, not the ones who've been waiting for a solution like this.

I've been waiting for a simple and affordable home docking solution to add USB 3.0 to my MBP. But the omission of HDMI means this one is crossed off the list. So right now my TB docking options sit at ____________, _____________, and _____________. While those are quality options, I wouldn't mind adding one more to the list for comparison sake before buying.

If you are prepared to spend $300 for a docking station, just spend $6 more and get a freaking adapter. ಠ_ಠ